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Old March 7th 05, 08:19 PM
Steve
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Pete C. wrote:

> More comments below...
>
> Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
>
>>"Pete C." > wrote in message
...
>>
>>>A few comments below...

>>
>>>Other that then environmentally clean but paranoia inducing power
>>>produced by nuclear plants, the remaining bulk of US power production is
>>>coming from pollutant belching coal fired plants.

>>
>>The bulk of pollution coming out of coal plants these days is CO2 which
>>is of importance to the greenhouse effect. But the pollution controls on
>>coal plants today are very serious. Much better maintained that what's on
>>a typical car.


Yes, the biggest single emission from a "clean" coal plant is CO2,
however even the cleanest coal plant puts out oxides of sulfur and
particulates in the range of many TONS per year. And a little-known bit
of trivia is that the average coal plant releases more radioactivity
directly into the environment each year than a nuke plant (naturally
occuring radioisotopes are found in coal deposits and aren't normally
separated, and they get out in the particulates that get through the
scrubbers, as well as being present in the fly-ash captured by the
scrubbers, which must be disposed of itself).

I'm worried that we're sneaking up on a quiet power crisis in the US.
Right now, about 20% of the US power grid is supplied by nuclear plants.
The last nuclear plant to go on-line did so over 20 years ago. The
oldest nuke plants are coming up on the age where they simply have to be
shut down, or else heavily re-invested and the enviro-nuts won't allow
new construction or heavy re-investment in nuclear power. So even if
demand were to hold constant (it won't its growing) that means that
greenhouse gas production will ramp up by order of 20% as the nukes are
taken offline. Wind power is the only alternative that's made anything
of a dent, because the same enviro-nuts that would rather breathe coal
fumes than have a new nuclear plant will not accept new dams for
hydroelectric power, and in fact want to tear down several of the most
productive hydroelectric plants in the US as well.


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